MD-11 Fuel Capacity

[Warped Factor]

Back in September a friend of mine who lives a few miles south of Gatwick had an American Airlines MD-11 fly back and forwards over his house a few times at low altitude and with the gear extended.

Being a bit concerned on both safety and environmental grounds he got in touch with the BAA asking what was going on.

The reply has come back from the BAA stating that they contacted Air Traffic Control to find out the reasons for this, ATC advised that the aircraft had too much fuel on board and had asked to be re-positioned.

So, bearing in mind that the MD-11 was on a direct flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Gatwick, can it :

a) really fly all that way and still be too heavy with fuel to land, or

b) was this possibly just an excuse while they sorted something else out (they only did about an extra 60 track miles).

Thanks.

WF.


[This message has been edited by Warped Factor (edited 11 October 2000).]

[traveler]

You sure he was inbound, and not outbound and returning ?

[Prof2MDA]

Not sure how long the flight is, but the issue would also depend on what AA has as their max landing weight, as there is some customer option here.

In any event, I have flown across the Pacific and been landing weight limited, so it is not impossible that the same happened on the route in question.

[bargain]

The plane was definately inbound. Also, even if the MD11 was overweight to land, surely they would have realised this before intercepting the ILS; after starting the approach, it broke off and then flew an extra 60 track miles before re-joining the ILS to land ...